Joey

This one goes out to our beloved dog Joey.  She is now resting peacefully as her 15 and a half years on this earth were enough.  You will always be remembered and missed.

This week is our intersemester break.  We have a week off and it has been quite nice so far.  My roommate Dennis went home to be with his family and child who now is speaking and saying Dad.  It is nice having the place to myself.  First thing I did was clean it thoroughly.  A great friend of mine Richard Kim came to visit with his friend Khan.  We spent a night in Poznan then extemporaneously went to Berlin.  Berlin was quite large.  I have been to Munich and it was more intimate where going to the main street put you into the thick of things.  In Berlin it was quite different.  Many miles of walking were necessary to see the different parts.  I was glad that they had a decent number of buildings and monuments from the world wars.  We spent a night there and left late the next night.  It was ~$30 to go there via train (2.5 hours) and $30 to go back via van (Berlin express 3.5 hours).  Richard and Khan left the next morning early, it was great seeing Dick.

The next day we met Ola's friends.  I've heard so much about them and they visited for a week.  First they were in other parts of Poland, making it to Poznan for the last 2 nights, then they were off to Berlin.

It has been very cold here the last week, some of the coldest weather I've experienced here, wrong time to visit.  I have been spending a lot of time studying anatomy as we have an exam in a week and a half.  It was pushed back since a vast majority of my classmates had extra tests to study for and would not have adequate time for anatomy.

The other night we were at Czekolada, again, and this Polish girl swore I was kidding when I said I spoke only a little Polish.  Apparently the few things I said, I said so convincingly that she would not accept the fact that I was not Polish and thought I was lying to her, a compliment I guess?

Some photos from the week.

Mustache with the creepy glasses, sadly the 'stache is gone

Richard on the right, Khan to the left

William and Fil in the hostel, another good hostel experience.  

Berlin wall

the wall

On the 'old' side of the wall

quite stunning

Bugatti Veyron, 1001 horsepower... the fastest most expensive car ever made.. one of the highlights for me.  

Typical Germany, sadly they were closed since it was 1130 at night and we were looking for dinner

an old American checkpoint that has been kept

just one of the MANY graffiti pieces of art

kind of funny

where the initial screenings took place for the jewish people before they went to the concentration camps

madness

Berlin wall at day

A huge dome over 3 buildings

I think they forgot an L

a memorial for the Jewish people who died during the war

an American Weiner

Yum

The capital building

A Iran rally that was happening, many Police were nearby to ensure its civility 

A crazy art area we stumbled across

Angels represent!!!

I don't think it will be too small

Snow in Poland, the first time is snowed in a month and a half

Michael Contreras in Poznan!?

Woke up in the Sheraton hotel with Richard and Khan to watch ice hockey, ESPN, and Poland versus Ukraine Wipeout!!!  I love that show.  I was so amazed they had it here.  So stoked!

Brr

A taste of Ireland, this goes out to my little bro Scott

Love you Joey

Dick Kim

Richard should be here any minute.  Pretty excited about that.  It has snowed ceaselessly the last two days.  First real snowfall in a month and a half.  The Lech Poznan team won another match, taking them closer to the European title.  

Yesterday I noticed that on all the street signs they have bars that look like service bars followed by a number.  This corresponds to the loudness of the street.  Thus when looking to purchase a house you can choose one on a quiet street.  I also found out that the small rynek near Fil's house used to be the center of the richest place in Poznan.  There are many buildings all around the area that seem to once be very nice.  When Hitler came he made it a point to take over this area first since it was the location of most of the wealth.  Unfortunately the area looks to not have completely recovered from that time as now it definitely doesn't look like one of the ritzy areas.  

Quiet Week Post Chem Final

After the Chemistry final exam, the week has been fairly quiet.  I had some fun Monday night which made for a tiresome Tuesday with 2 sleepless nights.  It has become customary to go to my friend Rahul's place after an exam.  He is a great cook and treats us to lovely dinners after tests.  Ola brought her favorite wine over and that started the good night.   Last night I went to bed at 6pm and woke up at 6am.  Pretty nice!  Today was spent in the library, 8 continuous hours to be exact.  Now I'm watching the Arsenal v Barcelona game.  Not too many photos to post, hopefully this weekend I will get some more as my good friend Richard is visiting from England.  Stoked!  Here are 2 pictures, both quite funny.  The first is what I was studying for chemistry.  Throughout the year we learned tons of structures at other material for the weekly quizzes, on which I did quite well.  For the final we had to learn a ton of new material, including about 50 new structures.  I thought that a final was on the material presented in class throughout the course, but I was wrong.  One day I drew hundreds of structures, and of course the ones they asked on the final happened to be the few that I didn't study, thank goodness for half points.   The other is of a Norwegian friend of mine.  This was during our time studying for Chemistry.  It was tough to study for because what do you do, study new things, or review all the things you learned throughout the year?  She got a in a solid nap, wouldn't be my choice of position.

Not even the half of it.  Click on the picture and zoom in to see all these fun structures.  Dear patient, I don't know what is wrong with you, but I can draw the ATP reaction with the adenosine cyclase enzyme to produce cAMP very well!!!

This year's first casualty.  

More Pictures

Fireworks above the city for one of the many Polish holidays.  I heard Poland has the most holidays of any country.  

A single caution marker for a potentially devastating hole exposed on a busy street.  Watch out! 

Latest biophysics with a light snow dusting 

A screen shot of this very sexy pose of my great friend Alex after our last skype converstation 

Mustache

I have a mustache.  The guys love it, it freaks some of the girls out.  Oh well...

Been busy studying for some tests.  Luckily I don't have to take all of them, I'm exempt from some, which gives me more time to study for the others.  

We went to the shot bar this weekend, a new favorite spot.  We went early one day and hung with the bartender and had a few beverages and she let us put our music on so we were the DJs for the whole night.  

It has been pretty warm here lately with some rain.  It will get colder by the end of the week so it might snow.  My good friend Richard is coming to visit next Friday so that will be fun.  Our anatomy test got pushed back 2 weeks so it will be in March.  Everyone was swamped so they dominated the voting process. 

What's up with the Lakers talking with the Nuggets for Carmello?!  I approve!  

Stoked my mom gets to watch baseball now, that will make her VERY happy!  And the Angels could have a decent team this year, an extra plus.  

Us at the shot bar drinking with the bartender.  We were the only ones there for a few hours.  She charged us next to nothing.  Should have seen the look on her face when we have her the 100zl tip.  

Irish Car Bombs

The Latin professor.  So many good things with this picture.  High pants, very short tie (my favorite), suspenders, etc.

Ola's friend Katie came into town from Chicago.  She was in Berlin visiting.  She had a blast.  

Yum.  Notice the infinity sign.  The bar's hours are 11- infinity (an infinity sign).  

Me and Maria at Czekolada a few weeks ago.  Someone took a picture of us and was nice enough to send it my way.  

DJ Fil

My phone hooked up to the system and was playing in both levels of the bar.